Fractionalized Content: The New Keys to Video Marketing on Social Media

There once was a time when marketers could command every consumer’s attention, ask, “Where’s the beef?” and make their brand a national phenomenon.

That was back when video marketing was a relatively straightforward undertaking. All brands needed to do was create a few television commercials, book airtime on a dozen or so networks and voila, the entire country was exposed to its content. There were no “skip” buttons or fast-forward features; every consumer was forced to watch every ad for every product.

Unless you’ve been living off the grid for the past decade, it’s pretty apparent that the video marketing game is now much more complex. Cable and satellite television packages exploded to offer thousands of niche channels; digital-video recorders emerged to allow viewers to skip ads; and one-quarter of American households aren’t subscribed to any form of television.

Simply put, single-channel/commercial video marketing campaigns are dead, as your audience has not only migrated online, but has also become accustomed to parking its attention on its favorite platform, social media or website.

There will be a place for television in the future, and the “water-cooler” effect is a powerful phenomenon. However, in order to develop a direct line of communication with your audience, you need to know where it is and what it’s interested in and develop marketing content that’s relative to those interests.

The power of fractionalization

On social media, consumers are living in an on-demand world. With just one click, they can skip, close or scroll away from any video advertisement that doesn’t immediately appear to be relevant to their interests. Beyond that, no two social media sites are the same. Each features a specific demographic of users who are expecting to have a specific type of experience.

In such a climate, it’s essential to take a fractionalized approach to video marketing. Rather than using their whole budget to create one or two ads that try to appeal to a mass audience, brands can improve their return on investment by using that same budget to craft many smaller pieces of content that are geared toward niche audiences across a variety of social channels.

This does take more time and creative elbow grease than the traditional way of doing things, but it’s what the online era demands—and it’s not as difficult as it may sound.

Here’s how to get started

Develop your big idea: Even with fractionalized content, the first step of a video campaign is the same as it’s always been—identifying your core offering and your core audience. This will reveal your “big idea” and provide the guide to your fractionalization.

It’s quite obvious that a razor brand’s core offering is razors and its core audience consists of people who want to have a great shave. In order to achieve its main objective of demonstrating that its razor line is of superior quality and to motivate men to care more about shaving, it developed the big idea of “Shave Matters.” This hypothetical big idea highlights the fact that men should care more about shaving, and this razor company has products that matter most for men of all ages, races and stages of shaving.

There are many different types of shavers in the world who all have different desires, and they’re all frequenting different social channels. This is where fractionalization comes into play.